"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
Please Gods, do not let them forget me
Seasons have changed and now have forced me
to find a will and a way to go home
As I lie in the cold, I am dying,
I lift my head and begin crying
out to someone, to something, to anything
To anyone at all
The horrors return
and churn in my memories
Those bodies that burned
There was beauty and grace
in that place that we lived for
Never a trace of a face we didn't care for
But no more
Now some pray to the moon
and some stare blankly into the eyes of the doomed
They place their hands gently
on those who had gone too soon
And plead to me intensely,
"Godspeed be on your way, go on..."
So please Gods, do not forget me
as I lie at the gates of this city
Find me the will and the way to return
Seasons have changed and now have forced me
to find a will and a way to go home
As I lie in the cold, I am dying,
I lift my head and begin crying
out to someone, to something, to anything
To anyone at all
The horrors return
and churn in my memories
Those bodies that burned
There was beauty and grace
in that place that we lived for
Never a trace of a face we didn't care for
But no more
Now some pray to the moon
and some stare blankly into the eyes of the doomed
They place their hands gently
on those who had gone too soon
And plead to me intensely,
"Godspeed be on your way, go on..."
So please Gods, do not forget me
as I lie at the gates of this city
Find me the will and the way to return
Lyrics submitted by Octavarium64
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